The foot-and-mouth disease outbreak on a British farm has been linked to a nearby laboratory,

a strain resembling the one confirmed on a farm in the county of Surrey was used in a vaccine batch manufactured last month.

Sixty cattle were slaughtered on the affected farm,

and the carcasses driven away for incineration.

Farmers fear the disease, which normally takes three to six days to manifest itself, could already be widespread.

Foot-and-mouth can cause long-term weight-loss in animals, reduced milk production in cows, blisters that lead to lameness, and in some cases death.

The foot-and-mouth virus can spread in a number of ways, including being carried several kilometres in the air and on the tyres of vehicles.

The emergency recalled the last foot-and-mouth epidemic in 2001, which cost Britain's economy an estimated eight billion pounds ($19 billion) and dealt a hammer blow to rural communities.

European countries have announced precautionary checks

as well as British livestock imports.